I don't know if it's because I'm less worried about it, because the thing was easier, or because I actually know this material better, but these tests were a breeze compared to Part I.

Friday was Physiotherapy. 110 questions on modalities (like e-stim, ultrasound, and the surprise contender, cold laser) and exercises (like when Codman's exercises are indicated, and what would contraindicate iliopsoas stretches and such).

Saturday morning was the ugly one. NBCE Part III. 200 questions in four hours on just about everything. And if the teacher of the review class is to be believed, this one isn't curved at all - it's a "get 75% or better or fail" situation. If that's the case, I'm sure I'll be repeating it in April. If not, I'll probably be fine. Since this one doesn't delay my licensure at all, I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to care. Nothing I can do about it now either way.

Saturday afternoon was the beginning of Part II. General Diagnosis (110 querstions) followed by Neuromusculoskeletal Diagnosis (110 questions). Everybody around me was complaining about how hard GD was, but I didn't seem to have problems with it. Or I'm so ignorant that I didn't even know I didn't know the answers. Oddly, NMS was a breeze. I guess Dr. Bougie actually taught us stuff. Who knew?

This morning was the two subjects I was most worried about. Diagnostic Imaging (110) and Chiropractic Principles (110). DI took me the longest to complete of any of the sections in Part II -- I took a whopping 42 minutes. The other subjects, I averaged about half an hour. (I should mention that they don't let you leave the 90 minute exam until the 60 minute mark.) I wouldn't call it easy, and I certainly wouldn't want to do it again, but I surprised myself by how much I knew. Apparently when I was barely scraping by in my classes and complaining that I wasn't on the right drugs, some of the information was sinking in. Plus the review class was really good. Similarly, Principles had stuff that we'd actually gone over in classes - which, based on the review class, came as quite the surprise to me.

This afternoon started with the one that made me concerned about the profession as a whole. Chiropractic Practice (110) is the one about, well, how to actually do this chiropractic thing. I'm concerned about the profession because I've heard over and over that this is the section that the most people fail, and that a lot of the time it's because they run out of time trying to figure out each of the questions. Questions like, if this segment is fixated in this direction, what contact and line of drive do you use to adjust, using which hand? Stuff that, by this point, really should be second nature to anybody who's gotten to the point where they're taking the test. Although I suppose I should admit that I needed to make myself a chart so I didn't get mixed up. However, I spent two or three minutes at the beginning of class making the chart, and had it as a reference for the entire test. I finished in 31 minutes, a good ten minutes before the next closest person. Several of my classmates were talking afterwards about how they were cutting it close to the wire when time was called at 90 minutes. It worries me.

Anyway, the last section was Advanced Clinical Sciences (110), which is the garbage can category. Everything they couldn't fit in anywhere else ended up here. Pediatrics, geriatrics, OB/GYN, psychology... you name it. Plus, of course, they couldn't let any section stay within its lines -- every section had a few questions from at least one other section, so you can be sure this one wasn't an exception.

For those who don't want to do the math, that's a total of 970 questions. The weird part of the whole weekend is that I consistently finished before Gita, who is the one in my class who ALWAYS finishes tests first. It's become a running joke in the class. But for Boards, I was mostly competing for first done with Curtis, who generally isn't even in the running. It was kind of strange.

On the whole, I'm actually walking away from this experience none the worse for wear. Some of my classmates are just in a panic about the whole thing, but I'm mostly excited that I don't have to sit in the classroom with a scantron in front of me again for quite some time.

Results will be online on October 19. We'll see then if this whole cockiness thing is justified, or if I'm gonna be delayed in getting my license for six months. I'll let you know...

Cash only? Great idea!!! Ooooh, and you could do it out of the back of a van... just pull up, crack thier backs, get your cash and drive away... No way to track it, no chance of malpractice, and you look uber-legit!!! And you could paint the van black and red in honor of the A-Team! =o)